


The Russian Lesson

by Falt



Category: L.A. By Night, Vampire: The Masquerade
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-06-27 07:16:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19785898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Falt/pseuds/Falt
Summary: Eva and Jasper meet up for a Russian lesson, just as it says on the tin.





	The Russian Lesson

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by Karria's newest fic (as of publishing this, Chapter 5) in their collection [Sleep, my love, let me guard your dreams](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19293208/chapters/46693798).
> 
> I took (muddled through) Russian for four years at university so please forgive my indulgence.

Jasper arrives at Eva’s haven and knocks gently on the door, softly smiling as Eva promptly opens it and allows him in. He unslings his backpack and sets it by the coffee table, unzipping it and pulling out a thin textbook, journal, and pen.

“Thank you so much for offering to help me,” he looks up at her, watching her close and lock the door.

“It’s no trouble at all. I’m glad to help. And it will be nice to get some practice in. I haven’t spoken it in a long time. No reason to. Speaking of, do you want to be able to speak Russian, or just read it?” Eva replies, walking over to the couch and sitting next to the Nosferatu, picking up the textbook he brought to look it over. It was a newer work that she hasn’t seen before, but it looks like a good start.

“Mostly just read, but I’m sure speaking will come in handy eventually,” he replies, flipping open his notebook. The first few pages were already covered in scribblings of Cyrillic, sloppily printed. She chuckles, looking over his work.

Jasper smiles sheepishly. “It’s not great, I know. This was my work to figure out what the ring said. On the bright side, you can mostly skip the alphabet. I’ve got that down.”

“No, no, that’s perfect,” Eva replies, still laughing as she turns to the next page. “Russian is mostly written in cursive when its handwritten, actually. So, if you were struggling to write some of the letters in print, that’s why. It’s much faster once you learn how. I think I have a book that outlines how; I’ll look around for it.”

He nods, watching her pale hands move across the paper. He takes back the notebook, ever so slightly allowing his own hand to brush against hers. He flips to a clean page, looking up at her.

“So, where to begin?” he inquires.

“I think we can skip the first chapter of this book, since it covers the alphabet. You understand the soft and hard signs, yes?”

The sheepish look returns. “Conceptually, yes. In practice, no. It took me ten minutes to figure out how to even pronounce what those letters are called.”

Eva laughs once more, nodding in understanding. “If you’re not going to be speaking a lot, it doesn’t matter so much. You’ll just have to remember them for spelling. But listening to words spoken aloud and trying to imitate the speaker is probably your best bet for learning pronunciation. The difference between a word with a soft sign and one without is slight, but they can mean entirely different things if you pronounce them wrong. Though once you hear it enough, you’ll be able to tell the difference.”

Jasper listens intently, eyes falling to her lips more than once, enjoying the lilt and cadence of her soft voice. “Could you possibly give an example?”

He smiles to himself as Eva begins to speak once more, providing pairs of words that demonstrate the difference. It’s difficult to tell the difference, but he thinks with enough practice and Eva’s tutelage, he can figure it out. She sounds beautiful, the words rolling off her tongue. He can’t tell if she’s a native speaker or just incredibly fluent. He would ask, but the last time he brought up that particular aspect of her past, she seemed unwilling to give details. Better to let it lie than make her uncomfortable; he’s certain she’ll tell him when she’s ready.

Lost in thought, he almost doesn’t notice when she stops speaking. “Jasper?” she prods.

“What? Oh, yes. I think I’m starting to hear the difference. I’ll practice that at home and you can quiz me next time.”

She nods, picking up the textbook again. “The second chapter is introductions and social conversation. I know you don’t technically need that for your research, but we can use it to learn some of the cases and basic verbs. That’s probably going to be easier than jumping straight into whatever technical words you need for the labyrinth.”

Jasper agrees, and they start the lesson.

Neither realize how much time passes until Jasper’s alarm for sunrise goes off. He looks up, surprised, before laughing at himself. “I should be going.”

Eva smiles warmly. “You’re welcome to stay here for the day. Allow me to return the favor. We can continue this tomorrow.”

Jasper hesitates, realizing he can count on one hand how many times he’s slept away from his haven or the club. But he looks at Eva’s smile and thinks about the last time they’d spent the day together, and finds himself nodding. “I’d like that,” he smiles back.

He closes the books, arranging them neatly on the table as Eva stands and goes to her bedroom, changing into a simple cotton nightgown. Jasper walks in as she’s carefully removing the flowers and pins in her hair, watching the way her hair tumbles over her shoulders. He sits on the edge of the bed, taking off his hoodie and folding it.

They lie together, Eva resting her head on Jasper’s shoulder, closing her eyes as he trails a hand through her hair and down her shoulder. He stares into the darkness at the ceiling, thinking. Comfortable silence permeates the room until all at once, Jasper breaks it.

“How do you say ‘I love you’?” He blurts out the question before he can second guess himself, knowing if he thought about it any longer he’d never actually ask.

Eva jumps and opens her eyes at the sudden noise, but quickly settles back down, turning her head to look up at Jasper’s thin face. She considers him for a moment, studying his features before finally replying, returning her head to its original position.

«Я люблю тебя.» ["Ya lyublyu tebya."]

He repeats it back, waiting for her approval on pronunciation. When she murmurs that it’s good, he returns to running his hand through her hair.

The last thing she hears before falling asleep is Jasper repeating the words quietly to himself. She smiles, snuggling closer before allowing sleep to take her.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is dedicated to Alex Ward, Josephine McAdam, and my Russian professor Ludmila Alexandrovna for putting up with my (terrible) Russian for four years. Спасибо огромное!
> 
> It's too bad Russian has a different alphabet or I could have practiced more, but I despise anglicizing and did not want to cause reader suffering.
> 
> I cried while writing this so to any higher powers listening, please don't let Jas die.


End file.
